The dragon is the most auspicious sign in the Chinese zodiac as it is the only year represented by a mythical character, rather than an animal, as in the eleven others of the dozen-year cycle.

The symbol of royalty, it is thought by superstitious ethnic Chinese to be the bringer of wealth, wisdom, courage and power, with the result many couples will plan that their offspring be born during the lunar year.

Couples are believed to have until about May 2 to conceive in order that their child will be born before the Year of the Dragon draws to a close next February 9.

But many couples got a head-start. Beds in the Chinese capital's Maternity Hospital are fully booked until August and nannies in Beijing and neighbouring Tianjin have hiked their rates.

In predominantly ethnic-Chinese Singapore the government is hoping a boom can rescue its dramatically declining fertility rates.

Related Articles

In the most recent years of the dragon in 1988 and 2000 the numbers of babies born in the city state spiked by 10 per cent, in stark contrast to the declining birth rate during the years in between.

In 2010 the Singapore fertility rate fell to 1.15 per female, way below the 2.1 needed to replace the population, to the dismay of the prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"I fervently hope that this will be a big 'dragon' year for babies," he said. "This is critical to preserve a Singapore core in our society. We don't want to rely more and more heavily on immigration, nor do we want to see our population shrinking year by year."